1. Field of the Invention
THIS INVENTION relates to an egg transport module for the transport of loose eggs between different locations.
The invention also relates to an egg loader for loading eggs onto the transport module; an egg unloader for receiving eggs from the transport module; and an egg transport system incorporating the transport modules, egg loader and egg unloader.
2. Prior Art
Within the poultry industry today, excepting battery production, there is an increasing move away from the hand gathering of eggs towards automated egg collection. This means that the eggs are automatically removed from the laying nests and conveyed to the front of the sheds for packing. Examples of egg harvesters suitable for such automated egg collection are disclosed in International Publication WO 92/20222 (=U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,067) (Smith) and International Publication WO 02/091819 (Smith).
Packing is usually performed by manual labour, standing at a packing table and sorting, and positioning, the eggs into trays, ready for removal from the sheds.
In limited instances, the eggs are conveyed beyond the shed(s)—sometimes more than 100 meters—by a specialised “anaconda”-type conveyor system, to a central grading area, where they are mechanically graded and packed onto trays by automated farm packer machines. This provides an almost totally automated system with minimal labour requirements. These conveyors have only been partly accepted by the industry, as an option to manual packing and moving. There are numerous reasons for this:                1) these systems are expensive over long distances;        2) the conveyors are obtrusive in layout to key access areas on farms and/or;        3) the eggs can be exposed to severe temperatures during the slow journey to the packing area, which is totally unacceptable to both commercial table eggs and the more valuable fertile breeder eggs.        